Roppen Transportation Services Pvt. Ltd, which runs bike pooling and taxi startup Rapido, has raised Rs 391 crore ($54.6 million at current exchange rate) in its Series B funding round led by private equity firm WestBridge Capital, according to several media reports.
Others that participated in the round include new investors BAce Capital and Shunwei Capital as well as existing investor Nexus Venture Partners, Mint reported, citing regulatory filings with the ministry of corporate affairs sourced from data research platform Paper.vc.
Rapido’s board passed a resolution on August 19 to offer 11 equity and 28,387 Series B shares, according to an Inc42 report. WestBridge has reportedly invested Rs 222.6 crore, while Nexus Venture Partners has ploughed Rs 56 crore into the Hyderabad-based company.
VCCircle has reached out to Rapido as well as WestBridge and Nexus Venture Partners on the details of the investment, and will update the story accordingly.
In April, the startup raised about $11.2 million (Rs 78.2 crore) in its Series A round of funding that was led by Nexus. In January this year, Rapido raised $10 million (Rs 71 crore) as part of the same Series A round led by Integrated Capital.
In 2017, it raised funding in smaller amounts from US-based Skycatcher Fund and Battery Road Digital Holdings LLC, UK-based Thompson Taraz Managers and Astarc Ventures. Google India’s former head Rajan Anandan and Hero MotoCorp chairman Pawan Munjal have also invested in the startup.
Rapido was founded by Aravind Sanka, Rishikesh SR and Pavan Guntupalli in November 2015. According to its website, the company currently operates in cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Mysuru, Bhopal, Vijayawada and Patna.
Investors
WestBridge, a homegrown PE firm, was founded by KP Balaraj, Sumir Chadha, SK Jain and Sandeep Singhal. According to its website, the firm says its typical investment ranges between $10 million to $80 million. While WestBridge usually focusses on publicly listed companies, it has also invested in a number of privately held firms.
Last month, it bought nearly 41.35 million shares, or a 1.78% stake, in Yes Bank Ltd. via open market share purchases. In June, it led a $52 million (about Rs 360.25 crore) Series B round in online lending platform Biz2Credit Inc.
Nexus Venture Partners, which is known for its bets on Snapdeal, Delhivery and Shopclues, is also in the process of raising money for its fifth fund, which has a target corpus of $450 million. By May, it had raised $353.5 million (Rs 2,460.5 crore) from a total of 32 investors.
BAce Capital says it invests in early-stage companies, with a particular focus on India and Southeast Asia. It was founded by Benny Chen, the former managing director of Alibaba subsidiary Ant Financial. The firm has invested in startups such as Paytm and Bigbasket.
China-based Shunwei Capital was founded in 2011. It has invested in companies such as ShareChat, Cashify, Meesho and Pratilipi.
